Having a professionally designed website is wonderful, but it won’t gain much traction without an active blog. Here’s what a good blog can do for your business.
The Statistics
According to DemandMetric, companies with consistently published, high-value blogs produce an average of 67 percent more leads each month than companies that don’t blog.
Furthermore, Hubspot finds that businesses that blog get 55 percent more website visitors than businesses that don’t. Also, according to HubSpot, companies that published 16 blog posts or more per month, which is just one per week, received more than three times the traffic compared to companies who only published four posts in a month.
OptinMonster reports that websites that have a blog are shown to have 434 percent more indexed pages.
In a list of statistics about business blogging, ActiveBlogs states that 60% of people feel more favorable about a business after reading custom content on its blog.
What is a Blog?
Where website pages like your home page, about us page, and contact us page are stagnant and unchanging, a blog is an ever-fluent supply of quality content that will draw more visitors to your website and garner more leads.
Blogs can take various forms. For real estate agents, a blog might be an article about how to sell a home, how to buy a home, a hyperlocal piece about local features and amenities. But for a salon owner, a blog might look like natural ways to nurture your hair or ways to strengthen your fingernails.
A food blogger will naturally post recipes and food photos, whereas a fashion blogger writes about clothing and accessories, and a travel blogger writes about their adventures.
A blog will increase your brand identity, establishing you as a trusted resource. And, your blog should align with your website goals.
Typical Blog Niches
The blogosphere is full of niche topics, so the idea of a business blog stretches far in ROI. Here are some of the most recognized blog niches:
- Real Estate Blogs
- Business Blogs
- DIY Blogs
- Car Blogs
- Fitness Blogs
- Finance Blogs
- Lifestyle Blogs
- Music Blogs
- Travel Blogs
- Pet Blogs
- Gaming Blogs
Blogging Benefits for Viewers, Leads, and Customers
When you consistently publish content that answers a question or solves a reader’s pain point, that reader builds trust in your material. The more blogs you post and the more times viewers return to your site for additional information, the closer a relationship you form with that viewer, gently guiding them to become a lead.
You’re exposing your business to the people who are searching for you and creating a personal connection.
You can also expose your company and products to new prospects and a broader audience.
Blogging for Lead Capture
Blogging can be an incredible lead magnet for growing your business online.
Every blog should have a clear and visible call to action to obtain the viewer’s name and email address. A real estate agent might do this by offering a landing page with a free home valuation. A salon owner might offer a 20 percent discount on their next service. But there’s another way you can use blogs and content to capture more leads.
Once you’ve written a collection of blogs about the same subject, such as articles for buyers on finding the right agent, preparing to buy a home, steps to buying a house, closing costs for buyers – you could then copy those blogs into an eBook format, add some design elements, and make it a downloadable Ultimate Guide for Home Buyers. At the end of each one of the original posts on your blog, include that call to action to get leads from interested buyers.
By following those steps, you’ve got the makings of a growing content marketing strategy.
More Engagement with Your Leads and Customers
Once you’ve captured a lead through your blog’s CTA, you can enter them into your sales funnel and email market to them additional, relative content that may nurture them along in the decision-making process. And if your blogs are magnetic enough, people may begin to share with others.
Blogging for Search Engines
Search Engine Optimization, shortened to SEO, means you produce content that is tailored for search engine indexing.
People publish a blog to be discovered on the search engines and rank on the top of page one. It’s important to write for people first – warm, friendly, informative, inviting.
It’s the viewer you’re trying to convert to a lead, so being discovered on search is just a means to that end. If you wrote mechanically, strictly for search engine benefit, you’d soon lose search engine authority as viewers deemed your content invaluable, bouncing off the page never to return again. But the benefits of writing for search engines are invaluable.
The more often you publish a quality article on your blog, the more pages Google has to crawl and index. The more related keywords you implement in your blogs, the more search engine authority you earn. And the more frequently you publish, the more traffic you’ll receive. In fact, one blog post can generate traffic for years after first being published.
Another benefit to publishing consistently is that it signals to search engines and to viewers that your content is fresh and relevant.
Internal Linking
When you have multiple blog posts, you have the ability to link from one to another, provided they’re related. That’s called internal linking, and it has many benefits.
Internal linking guides the reader deeper and deeper into your website, reading more of your content, extending their time on-site, increasing their engagement with clicks and actions, all of which improve search engine authority and user trust.
The Benefits of Evergreen Content on Your Blog
Evergreen content on your blog is that which doesn’t expire, meaning it’s not dated by statistics, event dates, or current events. Instead, it’s rooted in substance that stands the test of time, in most cases. For example, a blog post titled, “Best rates for homebuyers in 2021” will deter readers who are searching in 2022 and beyond. They’ll see it as old and outdated. It’s a valuable piece of content, but its shelf life is short-lived.
Evergreen content could be considered quality, but not timely. For example, an article on how to prune your roses will stand the test of time.
That same article can keep showing up on the SERP (search engine results page) for years after publication. And, with the right call to action, can still generate quality leads.
Your Competition is Blogging
Another important reason to keep a steady flow of content moving is to help you remain competitive in your industry. Without fail, your competition is out there trying to rank for the same position you are. Knowing how, when, and what they blog, as well as a sneak-peek into their keyword strategies, you can adapt and modify your blog techniques according to what you’ve learned.
If you’re not blogging and can’t be found online, you can pretty much be sure you’re not generating the leads you could be – your competition is.
How to Write a Compelling Blog Post
To create a compelling blog post, you have to connect to your customer persona and generate content tailored to them.
You can get ideas for your blog posts based on what questions your clients and customers most frequently ask. Each one of those customer-driven questions has the potential to be a free-standing blog post. In other words, write about what your leads want to know about.
Think long and hard about your headline, because it’s what’s going to attract viewers to your site (or derail them!). A good headline length for your well-thought-out headline should be around 60 characters in length, and roughly 8-12 words.
Take full advantage of headings and subheadings for multiple reasons. First, subheadings help Google index your content. Second, it makes the text easier for the viewer to scan to find what they need. For example, in a blog post designed by a real estate agent as a 6 Steps to Buying blog post, the subheadings could be:
- How to Find the Best Real Estate Agent for Buyers
- How to Prepare Your Credit and DTI
- Down Payment and Closing Costs
- How to get Pre-Approved for a Home Mortgage (and why!)
- How to Negotiate with Sellers
- The Closing Process
Longform content performs best, meaning blog posts perform optimally at about 1,500 – 2,000 words.
You’ll also need to write a compelling met description, the text that shows up under your link in the SERP, to give readers a glimpse into what they’ll get when they click.
Implementing Keyword Strategies with Your Blogs
Keyword strategies, along with search engine optimization, are what power up your blog posts and give the search engine authority and ranking. Keywords are the phrases that people are currently searching for online that are related to your business. For example, someone interested in buying their first house might type into the search bar “how to buy your first house” could end up getting your 6 Steps to Buying in their results page, if it were optimized correctly.
Another way to get ideas for your blog posts is to go to Google and type in a question one of your clients recently asked. What you’ll notice is that Google offers a dropdown menu of related questions — other questions that users have asked about the same thing. Those related questions could spark new ideas for you.
Try Our Favorite Keyword Tracking ToolCreate a Content Marketing Plan with Keyword Strategies
Based on the questions your customers ask and based on the things you wish your customers knew, make a list of all your blog topic ideas. Then, do a bit of keyword research to learn how to best optimize that post for search.
Once you’ve done this, you’ve essentially created a content marketing plan that gives you an idea of what you’re going to publish, and when.
With consistently published blog posts, you’ll also have a steady supply of material to share across your social media platforms.
Where to Find Writers if You Don’t Blog
Not every business owner has the time, energy, or talent to whip up a 2,000-word blog post once a week. And not everyone has the desire to study keyword strategies or content marketing plans.
If you find yourself overwhelmed or feeling drug down by the weights of blogging, leverage out the heavy work to skilled professionals like writers, digital marketing companies, content agencies, and more.
You can hire someone to map out your blog’s topics, their aligning keywords, to write the article, and you can even hire a social media marketer to promote those blogs online.
Recycling an Old Blog Post
If you have a blog that’s performing particularly well, you can update it, refresh it, republish it as new, and continue to build on its existing success.
You can do the same with a post that’s underperforming. Find out where it’s missing its mark, modify, and give it another go.
Track and Measure for Results
Blogging is one of the most cost-efficient ways to market your business and services online. There’s a large return on investment when done properly. But to know how its performing, you’ve got to track and measure your results. For example, if your goal was to gain 50 new website visitors, you’ve got to know how many you had first, and how long it took you to gain those 50.
The Bottom Line
Statistics have proven over again that a consistently published blog with high-quality, valuable content generates more business online. Through a well-done blog, you can raise brand awareness, attract website traffic, encourage return visits, capture leads with forms, and give Google more pages to index, giving you more and more search engine authority to give your blogs the boost they need.
While a blog might not reach the SERP organically as it would with PPC advertising, you’ll find that your blog posts can be recirculated on social media. Don’t forget to track and measure your results to find out how each piece of content is performing, and then modify when needed.
And when in doubt, don’t hesitate to reach out to professionals who can help you get to the top of your blogging game.
